E3 2011: Respawn sci-fi shooter hinted at by EA president

LOS ANGELES--In July 2010, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter made a prediction about Respawn Entertainment's first game. He said he believed that the young studio, founded by Infinity Ward cofounders Jason West and Vince Zampella, was working on a "Halo-killer" sci-fi shooter for publisher Electronic Arts.

Now, nearly a year later, an EA executive has come close to confirming Pachter's prognostication. Speaking to CVG, EA Games president Frank Gibeau dropped some not-so-subtle hints that Respawn's game will indeed be a sci-fi action title--one he believes will be able to compete with some of the top titles in the genre.

Gibeau discussed EA's plan to alternate Medal of Honor games with Battlefield games in two-year development cycles--meaning the next Medal of Honor should be out in 2012. Then he shifted the subject to where Respawn's game might fit into this schedule.

"Titles like Respawn…we'll sprinkle those in where we see opportunistic gaps, either in a release schedule or in a genre standpoint," he said. "Those typically are more sci-fi oriented shooters, whereas the Medal of Honor and Battlefield brands are obviously more modern military oriented."

He continued, "So it allows us to pick and choose the best of the sci-fi shooters. It allows us to compete with things like Gears and Halo and put them on places in our release calendar where they're not cannibalistic to the core business and that's the essential strategy going forward."